PromptLock: first known AI-powered ransomware (proof of concept)

What happened

ESET Research identified PromptLock, a Go-based proof of concept that uses a locally hosted gpt-oss model through the Ollama API to generate cross-platform Lua scripts on the fly that scan, exfiltrate, and encrypt files. No live victims were observed, so it appears to be a research or prototype artifact rather than a deployed campaign.

Root cause

An LLM was wired into malware to generate attack code at runtime, making the resulting scripts vary per execution and complicating signature-based detection.

Fix / outcome

A proof of concept rather than an in-the-wild campaign. Notable as the first documented malware that generates its own logic from an LLM at runtime.

Sources